Thorpe and Johnson murders

The Thorpe and Johnson murders occurred during the summer of 2008 when NYPD officers Leonard Percival Thorpe (1981-2008) and Roger Johnson (1963-2008) were gunned down in their squad car in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. The two policemen were driving down a main road when they hit Luis Fernando Lopez with their car, as they stopped too late; an angered Lopez took out an MP5 submachine gun and peppered the two men with bullets through the front window of their car. Their deaths were two of scores of police deaths in the line of duty during 2008, a hard year for the NYPD.